Perry won the Hart over Daniel Sedin in a close vote. Thomas captured the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top goalie while Lidstrom won his seventh Norris Trophy as the league's best defenseman, beating out Weber and Boston's Zdeno Chara.

Visnovsky, 34, earned his first postseason all-star nod by leading all NHL defensemen in scoring with a career-high 68 points while tying his previous best of 18 goals. He was joined on the second team by Chara, Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne, Washington left wing Alex Ovechkin, Tampa Bay right wing Martin St. Louis and Lightning center Steven Stamkos.

Voting was conducted by the Professional Hockey Writers' Assn. at the conclusion of the regular season.

So many of us, called upon to vote on any sporting award with the word "valuable" included, tend to struggle with it.

How do you judge it? How do you choose among Corey Perry, Daniel Sedin and Martin St. Louis? And you could throw Tim Thomas, Alex Ovechkin, Patrick Marleau, Pavel Datsyuk and a half-dozen other players in there, too.

In baseball, the MVP usually comes from one of the most dominant regular season teams. Vancouver was that team in the NHL and D. Sedin was the Canucks' offensive leader. But the Canucks got their soul from second-line center Ryan Kesler, who took (and won) faceoffs, killed penalties and handled the toughest defensive assignment. Kesler got the Selke Trophy Wednesday, for the top defensive forward, but he should have been in the Hart Trophy mix.

In the end, the NHL voters did away with the subjective. They asked themselves, "Who is the player most responsible for his team's successful regular season?" Or, "Which team would not have made the playoffs if a certain player hadn't risen above?"

LAS VEGAS -- After winning his first Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player, Ducks winger Corey Perry shares his thoughts with reporters on capturing the most prestigious individual award in hockey. Perry, who was just the third finalist in franchise history, became the first to be selected after his career-defining 2010-11 season.

LAS VEGAS -- Corey Perry, the Ducks' sniper who was the only 50-goal scorer in the NHL this past season, was selected as the recipient of the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's most valuable player on Wednesday night.

Perry, 26, won the award in the first year that he was a finalist, beating out Vancouver's Daniel Sedin and Tampa Bay's Martin St. Louis. It was an emotional moment for the winger, who hugged his parents, Geoff and Nancy, before heading to the stage.

With a career-best 98 points to lead the Ducks into the Stanley Cup playoffs, Perry became the first Ducks player to ever to win the Hart. Paul Kariya was a finalist in 1997 and Teemu Selanne was one in 1998.

LAS VEGAS -- In a seven-day span, Tim Thomas has hoisted the Stanley Cup a few times, rode in a parade through the streets of downtown Boston, taken his Conn Smythe Trophy to Fenway Park to throw out the first pitch and found his way here to potentially pick up some more shiny hardware.

Ah, the spoils being a Cup champion and ending the Bruins' 39-year streak without one.

"It's fun because you just won the Stanley Cup," Thomas said Tuesday at the NHL awards ceremony media session. "To win the Stanley Cup, it takes so much energy. Physical. Emotional. Mental. It's not so much anything that happens afterward as it is the fact that you don't get time to rest. And being a 37-year-old guy, I appreciate my rest.

"It's been exhausting but well worth it. I wouldn't trade winning the Cup for a little bit of sleep right now."

LAS VEGAS -- Ducks winger Corey Perry has been a man about this desert town over the last 48 hours and the Hart Trophy finalist found his way up onto the stage Tuesday night during the Blue Man Group's performance at the Venetian.

Fear not, the Blue Ones did not cover Perry's body in paint although that would have been a sight to see. But the popular three-man act did its best to work him into the colorful antics.

For a look what the blue men did with the 50-goal scorer during their visual extravaganza, click on the photo. Perry figures to be cleaned up and dressed to the nines when he appears at the NHL Awards show on Wednesday night at the Palms Casino Resort.

LAS VEGAS-- A Hart Trophy finalist as a result of his breakthrough 50-goal season, Corey Perry met with the media at the Palms Hotel and talked about a number of topics ranging from his thoughts on his chances at winning the league's most prestigious individual award to the Ducks' playoff loss to Nashville to watching the Stanley Cup on television and enjoying the league's season-ending awards ceremony with his family and friends. Perry would be the Ducks' first-ever Hart winner if his name is announced Wednesday night.

[NOTE: Some apologies ahead of time for some smartphone camera shakiness due to a little jockeying for position with others.]

LAS VEGAS -- The red carpet hasn't arrived yet at the Palms Hotel but the welcome mat is already out for the NHL's awards ceremony that'll take place here Wednesday night.

It could be quite a night for two Ducks that will be here as Corey Perry is up for the Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player and Ray Emery is one of the three finalists for the Masterton Trophy.

The ballots are already in but Ducks Blog is asking you to cast your vote for each award and we'll throw in an added choice for someone else if you believe a deserving player was wrongly left out of the running. Feel free to chime in with your opinions.

The Hart Memorial Trophy might be highest individual honor in the National Hockey League but there are players throughout the league who would dream to have the Conn Smythe Trophy bestowed upon them.

It is given to the player judged to be the most valuable to his team in the entire Stanley Cup playoffs. Montreal captain Jean Beliveau was the first honoree in 1965 and legends such as Bobby Orr, Guy Lafleur, Mike Bossy, Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Steve Yzerman are among those that have been awarded the trophy.

The winners since the 2004-05 lockout have been Cam Ward, Scott Niedermayer, Henrik Zetterberg, Evgeni Malkin and Jonathan Toews. Patrick Roy is the only three-time winner (1986, 1993, 2001) while Mario Lemieux is the last to be honored twice (1991 and 1992).

Now imagine what the Ducks' high-scoring winger thought of the possibility of being named the NHL's most valuable player some six months ago. It became a reality Thursday when he named as one of the three finalists for the Hart Trophy.